postmortem
by Wickedly Caskett
Summary: Based off a tumblr prompt: Beckett dies after five years of being married to Castle. She watches him from above and hopes that he falls in love again. As one would expect- Warning: Major Character Death.


This was my response to a prompt sent in to me on tumblr, reworked a bit since I posted it on there.

Prompt: Beckett dies after five years of being married to Castle. She watches him from above and hopes that he falls in love again.

Warning: Major Character Death, as likely expected from that prompt.

I'm thinking of maybe continuing this into a two, maybe three chapter story- let me know what you think!

* * *

"No!"

She stumbles in front of the gun pointed at her husband, the 3XK's triumphant grin falling at the final strained act. He'd left her for dead on the ground, beaten and bruised and emaciated after over a week of torture with a fresh, prolifically bleeding slash wound to her side. But she had one last scrap of energy. One last scrap that hadn't been beaten and bled out of her.

And she sure as hell wasn't going to let him take Castle from this world too.

The bullet hits her chest, awfully near to her scar, and the blazing pain seems almost dull on top of everything else. It was hard to be in more pain than she had been for the past week or however long it was, and a bullet could only add so much to the broken bones and the ripped skin and the whiplashes and what not. The 3XK was one sadistic bastard.

She falls, giving in to everything as she falls to the floor. She's conscious of someone else shooting again, another body crumpling to the floor. But it's not Castle's body, because he's cradling her in his lap, frantically trying to stop the bleeding from both heart and side. She gives him a weak smile.

"Rick," she says weakly, shaking from the shock and the pain, barely getting the word out.

"Kate," he says desperately, her name a plea that she cannot fulfill, "No, you can't leave me. Not now, not ever. No, stay with me, I love you, stay with me, Kate."

She stares at his beautiful blue eyes, glowing in the darkness slowly encompassing her vision, and tries to commit that image to her mind, whatever of it was left. His beautiful, ruggedly handsome face, his words. He's repeating now. Just the three words between the tears. I love you. I love you Kate. Just like the last time she ended up shot, huh?

Macabre thoughts for a dying person.

Though there's hardly more macabre a situation to be in.

"I love you, Kate," he says, crying over her as he cradles her to his body, "Always."

The last thing she sees is his blue, blue eyes as everything fades to black.

"Always."

—

So this is the afterlife.

There's just a bunch of warm gray mist. Everywhere. It's like those dry-ice clouds they use during performances and shows and stuff. But it's everywhere, and it doesn't just wisp away once the curtain goes up. Here, there is no curtain.

And even though she's lost in the endless swath of mist, she feels at peace here. It's light. Everywhere is a warm, bright light.

It's rather lonely, this world of fog. Perhaps she's just in the beginning. She'd read this book once at Stuy- _The Five People You Meet in Heaven_- and while she was never religious she'd always liked that idea. The protagonist had died saving a little girl's life, and then had met the five people who had most changed who he was. After the protagonist realized truly what each had done for him in their own personal heavens, the person got to move on to the next stage. At the end, the protagonist created his own personal heaven to live in while he waited for the person he had to teach his lesson to. Perhaps this was the beginning of what it was really like. Though who knew? This was the greatest mystery that no living detective could ever solve. A witness-less scene, a place that no intel could get you knowledge of. The unsolvable question.

Something in her swelled at the adventure as she made her way through the fog, her prior injuries and weakness forgotten. There's no sense of direction in this mist world at all, at first anyway. As she walks on for who knows how long she becomes conscious of a familiar voice humming an equally familiar lulling song- Blackbird. Her mother had always sat with her and sung that when she was little when she had nightmares- it would both distract her and lull her off to sleep. Her mother had been clever.

As she approaches the voice the words become clearer.

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these sunken eyes and learn to see… all your life… you were only waiting for this moment to be free. Blackbird fly…"

She approaches the singer, an immediately recognizable woman in a pale purple flowing blouse and cream pants, the first spot of color she's seen in this place.

"Blackbird fly…"

"Mom!"

The woman turns, a huge smile coming over her face as she turns from the curious silver basin before her. She stops singing.

"Katie!"

She runs to her mother, arms wrapping around her, her mom's physicality strange in this ethereal place of fog and light. She shakes with happiness and tears and just… all the emotions. Everything. Thank goodness this part of the trope was true.

"I've missed you so much Momma," she says, feeling like a child again in her mother's warm embrace, "I've missed you so much."

"I'm so proud of you, Katie," says her mother, pulling back to look at her daughter's face, "I am so, so proud. And how you've grown- how beautiful you are! I've been watching, but it's not the same. It's one thing to see you in there, another to have you with me again."

She gestures to the silver basin, which looked to be a large, intricate birdbath. The closest thing she could think of to compare it to was the Pensieve from Harry Potter.

"It's like a looking glass into the world," explains her mother, bringing her daughter over to peek over the edge into the crystal clear water within, "I get to spy on anyone I knew when I was alive. Good fun, this thing."

"I bet you've had fun," she says, laughing, "You were always eavesdropping in… the world."

"That I did," says her mother, "And yes, the whole 'living world' thing takes some getting used to. But you'll have time to explore this place and to watch the world as I have. I'll be moving on soon enough now that you've arrived."

"But why? I want to stay with you… I've only just got you again!"

"We'll see each other soon, Katie," says her mother, "You, me, and your father. Don't you worry. Our paths will cross again. But for now it's time for me to join your father in the next leg of the journey, and your turn to wait here for your dear ones. The river pulls. I'll see you again soon, don't worry."

"Don't go," she says plaintively, but her mother is already moving on again with a final smile and encouragement to her daughter as she's carried into the fog, borne by some river swirling through the mist below. She cannot feel the current, not yet. But she supposes she will, someday.

After a moment of sadness at being deprived of her mother again, she turns to the basin, curiosity aroused. She knew who she wanted to see, and the basin did not disappoint. Before her Castle swirled into view, clad in full black, with Javi and Ryan and LT as they carried the… her? Her coffin. That was a weird thought. To a grave. Castle seemed to be hardly holding back tears. Iron Gates was cracking, tears falling down her face. Lanie was distraught as were Martha and Alexis. Little Ellie, the poor daughter following her mother's legacy a little too closely, was motherless and too young to truly understand. Oh that innocence. What she would have given to have stopped that from being sullied so early. But if she had not acted, her darling girl, her Ellie, would have been an orphan.

Espo breaks down in the middle of his speech. Ryan continues it for him but he too breaks down, speaking of the sister they'd lost. Lanie steps in, taking up the baton but she can hardly get through the last part before crying.

Rick hardly gets through his speech. She cries. His words. His words were her savior and her killer, her miracle and her catastrophe. His words were sanctuary and hell, olive branch and weapon. But today. Today they are love. He tells their story, from the first day they met to the day they married, to the days of their five years after that. Of Ellie, of all of their hardships along the way. Of her. How he talks of her. That's where he cannot get through the words and Alexis reads some for him. He speaks of her courage, of her inherent need for justice for everyone. Of her love for everyone she loved, of her respect for the victims and their families. Of her kindness, of her humor, of her tenacity and determination, of her selflessness to the very end.

And he says that she will always be his always. That he will always love her as he had for a long time, as everyone in the audience knows. And gripping his speech notes as if they could bring her back if he held them tight enough, he breaks down as he makes his way back to his seat, helped by his mother and older daughter. Ellie looks on in confusion through those big blue eyes she got from her father. She cannot understand yet, why Daddy's crying, where Mommy's gone. Not yet. But someday.

And she will not be alone, her darling girl. She might not have her mother but she'll have her father, who can love someone more than anyone in the world as she knows all too well. She'll have her uncle Javi and Kevin, auntie Jenny and Lanie and Maddie, big sister Alexis, grandma Martha, cousin Sarah Grace. And they'll all love her dearly and watch over her as she will from here. That she knows for a fact.

And as Rick pulls his youngest to him tightly with a hand running through her loose brunette curls gently as he once did to her, she hopes he can find love in this family again. Find the love she got the honor of having and sharing with him for those seven years in his family- both blood and precinct. Because he deserves that, to love again. And she will always love him here until he someday in the far, far future comes to join her in this land of mist and fog.

Always.


End file.
